I have a heritage award that was my main guitar for a long time. It has a very good tone and compares well with most guitars than I own. It has a one piece mehogany neck, 2 peice flame top, one peice mehogany body ebony finger board..set up plays like a dream. So I Ike them but this is partially an investment so wanted others opinions.

So you bought the LEO? Good investment. One of the best playing guitars I have ever played. The Heritage is as good, and I think will continue to climb. When you want one, they are impossible to find. Congrats to you and JT. Heres a pic of my LEO.

So you bought the LEO? Good investment. One of the best playing guitars I have ever played. The Heritage is as good, and I think will continue to climb. When you want one, they are impossible to find. Congrats to you and JT. Heres a pic of my LEO.

They have not such construction (short tenon, nashville bridge) and historical correctness like current Custom Shop reissues, sometimes are fairly heavy too. But generally very good guitars, very nice and well respected with fairly high collectors value.

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bringing up an old thread..
prog i thought the 80-82 heritage had deep tenons
read it somewhere

IMO they're good guitars but don't really command a premium because of the flood of traditional-spec guitars that have followed. Gibson undercuts the value of previously-sold and vintage guitars by producing its own copies and fakes (Oops -- "reissues" and "aged").

IMO they're good guitars but don't really command a premium because of the flood of traditional-spec guitars that have followed. Gibson undercuts the value of previously-sold and vintage guitars by producing its own copies and fakes (Oops -- "reissues" and "aged").

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Not sure I quite agree......Both the 72 reissues and the Heritage 80's do command a premium.
Certainly the value of early 90's reissues are lowered by the continued upselling of the more later ones. But there are limited quantities of the Norlin reissues, and the fact they are separate to the HJ era 'R' series seems to keep them apart.

And I think the value of some of the Norlin 70's guitars has spiked upward in direct response the 74 reissue release.

Woops. I misspoke and A Randall is right, IMO. I meant "significant" premium (as in the mega-upcharges we see in new "special" Gibsons). But yes, absolutely, they are in a different category from the regular issue stuff because they did aspire to provide a higher level spec. Sorry for the confusion.

Not sure I quite agree......Both the 72 reissues and the Heritage 80's do command a premium.

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71-73 58 Goldtop and 54 Custom reissues deservely, they still have good specs and still nearly the same mahogany than 50s originals. Heritage reissues on the other side have worse specs like short tenon, worse electronics etc..., are far more away from 50s originals than the early 70s reissues.